Category: Hardball

Hardball

SINCE COVID-19 dawned in these climes, one of the most regular refrains, floating in the public space, is “stay home” — when feeling unwell; or simply to protect self from Coronavirus, by avoiding crowded places.

This advice, to be sure, makes eminent sense.  If your home is free of the infection, why become peripatetic by wandering in search of it — literarily?  Besides, if no one is endangered at home, then the home is the safest place to be — eminent common sense!

But what happens if you don’t have a home?  Well, that probably wouldn’t apply to the majority but what of the minority — Hardball hopes! — whose “homes” are the nearest under-bridge, or that furtive office suite when the rest are home and comfy, or the work yard, bustling and noisy during the day but mercifully deserted, quiet and peaceful at night, or even the nearest lay-by, when night falls?

What homes are these folks going and staying? Where is that fortress in these times of acute stress?  Where is that haven, away from Corona scare?

Nigeria, with a population estimate of 170 million people, has a housing deficit of 17 million units, by a statistical estimate.  Besides, a projection of a family of six, in a housing unit, claims 108 million out of 170 million estimated Nigerians could be homeless.  To address this deficit, a 2016 World Bank study projected Nigeria would spend Nigeria N59.7 trillion — hardly available cash!

In Homeless in Lagos, a BBC news documentary, the medium quoted a citizen, fleeing from the North East because of Boko Haram: “Despite the economic situation of this state, I’m still managing, living under a bridge.  I won’t do this forever, my life will not end like this under bridge.  I hope to return to my home and continue my life.”

But that might not be so soon, if the experience of another homeless denizen, with a bad sole via an infected foot (no thanks to a Marwa tricycle accident), is anything to go by.  He’s been homeless and sleeping under the bridge too, for 14 years — and counting!

Good that in 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari promised to build 5,000 homes a year to address the housing deficit. Between then and now, the situation is not clear.  But with gaps between budget planning and delivery (no thanks to shortfalls in revenue), it’s safe to assume not all the houses were delivered, despite the yeoman’s efforts by the Works and Housing minister.

What all these suggest is that quite a number in Lagos, the state most hit by Coronavirus in Nigeria, have no homes to return to, and stay in, even as the Lagos government admirably rises up to contain the pandemic.

So, each time you hear the charge: stay home to stay safe, know hundreds, if not thousands of Lagosians, are simply unable to do that, even if they wanted to.

Hardball’s heart goes to these folks.  But how the government manages their plight could prove crucial in triumphing over the pandemic.

Hardball

For the two years he held sway as chairman of the now disbanded Special Investigation Panel on Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla was like a guided missile gone rouge. And when he was arrested recently by security agents at the instance of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), he had gone full circle from being a hunter of corruption suspects to being a corruption suspect himself now in the net.

The panel he had headed was apparently intended by the Muhammadu Buhari presidency as a special purpose vehicle able to skirt procedural red tapes that typically hobble the efforts of other anti-graft agencies in the battle against corruption, which the administration has always avowed to be one of its cardinal missions in power. Established in July 2017, the panel by its enabling law had a limited mandate, namely to discreetly investigate cases referred to it in writing by the President or his designated agents. But by the time President Buhari pulled the rug from under the panel in September 2019, the agency was neck deep in sundry anti-graft cases it took upon, allegedly with neither authorisation from nor foreknowledge of the presidency.

Before disbanding the panel, the President had suspended Obono-Obla from office in August 2019 pending conclusion of investigation by the ICPC of a rash of petitions against him. ICPC had said it was in receipt of petitions accusing him of abuse of office, falsification of academic records, living above his income and collecting gratification from suspects under his investigation. It added that he was also facing allegations of working outside guidelines governing the panel he headed by investigating unauthorised petitions and prosecuting suspects without recourse to the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).

Immediately following his removal from office, however, Obono-Obla turned fugitive and spurned invitations by the ICPC to come answer to the petitions against him, warranting the commission declaring him wanted. Not that he kept quiet all the while. On online platforms and in shadow interviews, he accused the ICPC of witchunt, boasted of being envied for having been the most daring of the nation’s anti-corruption fighters, and alleged that he wasn’t getting support from powers that be in the presidency just because he hails from a minority ethnic group. But the ICPC insisted that the honourable thing he need do was come out of hiding and prove his innocence.

Well, Obono-Obla didn’t do that until he was arrested in Abuja. Now that he’s in the net, he yet has a chance to disprove the sundry allegations against him; otherwise he should face the consequences of going rouge.

Hardball

FORMER Abia State governor, Senator Orji Uzor-Kalu, who was convicted and jailed for corruption last December, has sympathisers who claim he was imprisoned for reasons other than his guilt.  Kalu was sentenced to 12 years in prison for N7.65billion fraud and money laundering after a 12-year trial.  Kalu’s appeal failed this week as the Court of Appeal, Abuja, dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.

Curiously, the President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Shettima Yerima, also this week, introduced a new narrative, saying the group would expose those who allegedly influenced Kalu’s imprisonment.

Yerima told journalists in Abuja: “We are aware that some persons, especially those within APC, never believed Orji Kalu will succeed in winning the senatorial election. In fact, they created so many obstacles to prevent him from getting the party’s ticket and when he eventually succeeded they conspired and mobilised forces against him winning the election proper. But they are not Allah who decides, so he won the election with landslide.

“Yet they went after him again through the electoral tribunal, but because Allah has destined him to be in the Senate, he triumphed at the Appeal tribunal again. Yet these enemies re-strategised and again came after him through this long-standing case and turned the table around. We know all the story.”

Yerima blamed “over-ambitious individuals” in the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Kalu’s troubles. Indeed, Kalu may well have enemies in the party who do not wish him well.  But the question is whether Kalu was guilty of corruption.

Yerima also said:  “At the appropriate time, we shall name those involved in this conspiracy against this peace-loving former governor. Yes, we shall name those behind this rubbish because they are the real enemies of Nigeria… very soon, the public will know who they are. Nothing is hidden under the sun for too long.”

When will the “appropriate time” come for the promised exposure? Portraying Kalu as a victim does not mean he is a victim. It took 12 years to determine Kalu’s guilt after starts and stops. His trial had began before the APC was founded in 2013, which is seven years ago.

Yerima is free to sympathise with Kalu. He is also free to try to prove Kalu’s alleged innocence.  But his trial and conviction showed that he was guilty as charged.  Yerima’s attempt to politicise Kalu’s punishment for corruption is ridiculous and dishonest.

Hardball

Some National Assembly members have been angling for exception, from the Covid-19 regimen at the airports, despite coming in, as others, from foreign countries. This is despite that the checks were put in place to control the spread of the virus.

Before then, Seyi Makinde, the governor of Oyo State, made light jokes of Coronavirus at a political rally, against common sense and expert advice, only to start apologizing, in a case of medicine after death.  How does that help those who had already been put at risk, at a rally that should not have happened?

Then, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, top lawyer and proprietor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) went into narrow legalism, and sheer crowing about the superiority of  private universities over public ones, just because ABUAD shut down, as other universities, courtesy a Federal Government directive, again against the Coronavirus scare.  The chief easily forgets only the living — not the dead — quote laws and also crow and bawl: my university is better than yours!

But you would have thought that was limited to dwellers in the wide and merry way, which the Bible says leads to perdition.  Not quite.

The shocking conduct of the Bishop David Oyedepo-headed Living Faith Church (aka Winners Chapel), holding mass Sunday service, while other major churches obeyed the government’s public health advisory, is ample proof that the conceited have disciples, even among the supposed straight-and-narrow.

Such ecclesiastical rascality should never be tolerated; and the government should move fast to enforce no-crowd order in mega-churches.  A Premium Times report claimed the church didn’t even provide the most basic of health and hygienic routines, before letting in the congregation — not even the provision of hand sanitizers.

“They also did not check our temperature before hundreds of us went into the church,” Premium Times quoted one Tunmise Ogunlolu, a congregant on the day. “But everyone was visibly afraid throughout the service.”  From Hardball, it’s : serves you right!  Didn’t those who showed up at Canaanland know of Covid-19, and the government’s efforts to curtail its spread?

But the real flak should go to Bishop Oyedepo himself who, with all due respect to him, failed to show leadership, when the times demand it.  Even the Bible is very particular about people “under authority”, to which the Bishop showed absolutely no sensitivity.  Besides, does the Bishop even appreciate the risk he has put the hundreds that came worshipping to?

Hardball joins millions of other Nigerians to laud other major churches, Catholic, Orthodox or Pentecostal, that shut down Sunday service, in obedience to the government’s directive, to fight Coronavirus.  But all these should band as peers to mount peer pressure on Bishop Oyedepo to change tack.

Otherwise, the government, under whose authority is everyone, should move in and impose compliance, to save many people from themselves.

The Bible itself declared loud and clear, when the tragic King Saul went astray: to obey is better than sacrifice; and to heed is better than the fat of rams!  It’s time to obey simple life-saving directives.  That is far better than resorting to empty fatalism, when the havoc is done — and is irreversible.

Hardball

THERE are people who don’t understand what an emergency is. For the enlightenment of such people, an emergency is defined as “a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.” Obviously, the coronavirus crisis, also known as COVID-19 pandemic, is an emergency.

In a puzzling response to the Federal Government’s directive that tertiary institutions nationwide should close for a month to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, the founder of  Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti,  Ekiti State, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), faulted the order  mainly on procedural grounds.

Babalola argued: “The Ministry of Education knows that it has no right to close universities; that was why it wrote a letter to NUC to close down universities. The NUC also knows that the power to close down universities under Section 22 of Education (National Minimum Standard) provides that it must afford the proprietor of the institution an opportunity to make representation for consideration within 70 days before it can close down a university.” He added that the authorities “ought to have invited proprietors of universities to an emergency meeting to discuss the letter from the Ministry of Education.”

This argument trivialises the gravity of the coronavirus crisis. The COVID-19 is a greater emergency, compared with the “emergency meeting” Babalola argued for.   It is noteworthy that many countries across the world are acting proactively to contain the disease, which was first recorded in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

So far, 26 cases of the disease have been confirmed in the country, with one confirmed case in Ekiti State, where the Afe Babalola University is located. Although the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)  said “there has been no death from COVID-19 in Nigeria, “the statistics indicate that the coronavirus has infected more than 275,000 people worldwide, there have been more than 11, 000 deaths, and 88,000 victims have recovered.

Based on the symptoms of the disease, which include, runny nose, sore throat, cough, fever, and breathlessness in severe cases, governments across the world have introduced measures to prevent mass gathering and promote social distancing in order to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Babalola missed the point when he said: “The one month closure would have adverse effect on the predictable academic calendar of private universities and reduce them to the level of public universities where four year programmes are not completed in eight years.”  His university is a private university, and he is entitled to his ego.

But this argument is unrealistic. Is Babalola saying that disruption of any kind is unacceptable, even when the purpose is to keep people safe from a disease that could cause death?

Hardball

Who is afraid of Rohr?  That person had better roar loud and clear, instead of the subdued murmurs issuing from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

The latest of such grumbles is the ridiculous boast, published in the Sporting Life issue of March 18, which claimed that the NFF claimed “Eagles stars bigger than Rohr” — the exact headline.  That crap — for that is what it is: absolutely crap — must be conceit on four feet.  It is clear conceit, which births hubris, which cockily goes before a loud crash!

NFF under Amaju Pinnick has done well, birthing a new spirit in the Super Eagles.  But it would appear, by its present conceit against Gernot Rohr, the German-French manager who has acquitted himself rather well in his first term, NFF is bent on wilfully throwing away its own achievements; and returning the national team to the pre-Rohr dreary and languorous lane.

But let’s even examine that ridiculous claim — that Eagles stars are bigger than Rohr.  What clubs do these stars play for?  Barcelona: and contending the majestic nimble of the genius, Lionel Messi?  Or Juventus — giving the ultimate technician, Christiano Ronaldo, a good run for his technical drill?

O, how many play for Manchester City, two-time defending champions, in the English Premier League ( EPL)?  O yes: Wilfred Ndidi is mainstay of Leicester City.  But aside from a freak EPL title, what’s Leicester’s standing in the pantheon of great English club sides? Okay, Odion Jude Ighalo is playing for childhood dream team, Manchester United, even taking a massive pay cut to belong.  But isn’t Man U of today a sorry shadow of its greatness of yore?

So, who and where are these massive stars playing in Euro leagues, bigger than Rohr?

If NFF would wake from its self-inflicted delusion, it would realize the ethos of the Rohr era: pick Nigerian-born players — and the younger they are, the better — playing in whatever league so long as they have eye-catching talent, and wield them into a gang, that will mature with time and age.

This experiment has gone through one World Cup and one Nations Cup; and is essaying another Nations Cup, en route to a second World Cup.  Instead of slackening, the team appears more sprightly and more exciting by the day, with dashing young talents like Victor Osimhen, who has taken the French Ligue 1 by storm with Lille, and Samuel Chikweze, who trots his impressive stuff with Villarreal, in the Spanish La Liga.

Leave this team to gel and flower, and Nigeria may well be talking of an encore of the impressive USA ’94 World Cup/Altanta ’96 Olympics Eagles that took the globe by storm.  But plagued by NFF’s anti-Rohr conceit, everything could just blow up in smoke.

Football is Nigeria’s prime unifying factor.  Its fate is therefore too important to be left to NFF alone, particularly this species manifesting these disturbing whims and caprices.  President Muhammadu Buhari and Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, had better take serious note.

The contract of Gernot Rohr, is rolling to an end.  It’s time to negotiate a new contract; or let it roll to term, change hands and part ways.  But you must always reward performance and punish failure.  Failure to follow this natural path has dire spiritual implications.

Still, either path is clear enough.  What is not, is the present we’re-on-we’re-off-o-not-exactly signals, emanating from NFF.  Those mixed signals don’t seem to think much of getting the coaching end of the matter done with, and concentrating on prosecuting 2022 World Cup and 2021 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Hardball

WHEN one’s peer is gruesomely cut down elsewhere, the mere odour of blood tends to evoke the dread of class culling in one’s own domain. That may explain the concern a row between the Ekiti State government and some senior royals in the state has generated across the Yoruba nation.

The Ekiti government recently issued what it called an “administrative letter” to 11 monarchs over their alleged failure to cooperate with it and the leadership of the state traditional council. The letter accused the royals of refusing to attend state functions as well as monthly meetings of the State Council of Traditional Rulers since August 2019. It gave them 72 hours within which to explain their course of action.

That letter climaxed eight-month long feuding between the traditional rulers and Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, who had last August inaugurated Alawe of Ilawe-Ekiti, Oba Adebanji Alabi, as chairman of the state’s royal council. The choice of Alawe had been challenged by 17 senior monarchs known as the ‘Alademerindinlogun,’ who accused the governor of contravening the Ekiti State Chieftaincy Law providing that the chairman could only be appointed from among traditional rulers in the ranks of ‘Alademerindinlogun/Pelupelu.’

The monarchs had headed to court to challenge Governor Fayemi’s elevation of the Alawe to the status of ‘Pelupelu,’ just so he could name him chair of the royal council. In demonstration of their grievance, they vowed not to attend any function where the Alawe is present or any meeting where he presides. That was the battle line drawn with the state government that warranted the letter fired at the warring monarchs. But the letter, coming on the heels of the deposition of former Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II of Kano by the Kano State government, kindled fears of a similar fate brewing against the Ekiti monarchs.

Although Fayemi denied nursing any intention to dethrone the rulers served with the letter, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, issued a strongly worded letter warning him against treating the monarchy in Yorubaland with levity because the institution is “ancestral and spiritual.”

Hardball believes this whole crisis would have been avoidable if the governor had honoured the historical convention in place before now. Still, it was well cultured of him to have personally visited the Alaafin to explain his position. It is also commendable that Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, has stepped in to mediate a truce, such that the warring monarchs have resolved to suspend all litigations arising from the royal council chairmanship and related issues.

It is important that all necessary steps are taken, going forward, to cement this armistice.

Hardball

Realism and reason may well be in short supply in the Nigerian Senate.  This explains the introduction of a bill, on March 11, sponsored by Senator Birma Enagi from Niger State, which prescribes a 10-year imprisonment for importers and sellers of generators. Seriously, such a bill does not deserve the attention of a serious legislature.

The bill states: “Any person who imports generators or knowingly sells generators shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to be sentenced to imprisonment for a term not less than 10 years.”

A report said: “The bill however excluded importers and sellers of generators meant to power essential services. The exemption includes generators meant to serve medical purposes in hospitals and nursing homes and healthcare facilities. Airports, railway stations, elevators, escalators, research institutions, and such facilities that require 24-hours electric power supply are also exempted.”

The sponsor is said to have argued that the proposed legislation was meant to tackle environmental pollution, and was aimed at the development of the power sector.

Only Senator Enagi can explain how making it difficult for Nigerians to buy generators would help to improve power supply in the country. It is obvious that if power supply were steady and reliable, there would be no need for generators.

In other words, the solution is to fix the power problem, and not to further create a problem for Nigerians who are already faced with the burden of providing power for themselves through generators.

The Senate should be more interested in getting the power sector to work as it should in normal circumstances. Senator Enagi’s proposal is a recipe for darkness across the country. That cannot be the answer to the question of electricity failure.

The truth is that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has failed to bring about the desired improvement in the power sector. It is noteworthy that some months ago Minister of Power, Saleh  Mamman, through his spokesman, Aaron Artimas, stated that  Buhari had “poured billions of naira and attracted huge foreign investments into the power sector with the aim of improving the generation and distribution of electricity to Nigerians.”  The question is: What is the result?

The failed efforts inspired the kind of wrong-headed idea proposed by Senator Enagi. His proposal reflects a lack of creative and progressive thinking in the upper legislative chamber. The bill is not only unrealistic; it is also unreasonable.